Libyan Muslim Brotherhood Launches Facebook Page

A North African news portal has reported that the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood has established its own Facebook page. According to the report:

Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood on July 5th unveiled a page on social networking website Facebook. Libyan attorney and right activist Abdessalam El Mesmari told Magharebia that the step is “late on the part of the Muslim Brotherhood” and aims to “fill an online media gap… to introduce their ideas… as a political group with a political Islam-based line of thinking”. “The huge number of daily Facebook visitors is appealing to those who want to promote their ideas and vision, be they public figures such as media men, writers, or poets, or physical entities such as corporations, rights institutions and NGOs, or even heads of states, parties and political associations,” El Mesmari added. Blogger and rights activist Ghaida Touati said the page was the Brotherhood’s attempt to “promote its ideas to attract proponents… at a time when the loyalty of the Libyan political scene is being divided into what is known as the ‘old guard’ and the ‘new guard'”.”The social networking website attracts all strata of Libyan society, especially young people, the most important category in Libya,” she added. The Brotherhood’s Facebook page says: “We denounce violence and will not resort to violence to settle disputes. We think that differences, while maintaining the main constants within the Libyan society, can be a healthy phenomenon, if all parties abide by the rules of dialogue and the ethics of debate.” “We regard the values of freedom, justice and human rights, provided they do not contradict the tenets of or religion, as part of the core of religion and one of its objectives… we also value science and scholars, since they are the means of achieving advancement in society, as well as scientific, technical progress and development”, reads the page….Yet the group’s Facebook page reads: “Islam is the religion of all Libyans. It is not restricted to the [Muslim Brotherhood] or the Muslim trend. Nor do we claim to understand it better or to abide by it more strictly.” The page goes on to identify the brotherhood’s goals as “partaking in forming a new generation of faithful believers in the teachings of Islam, a generation that seeks to impart a pure and ethical life to the Libyan society”. iThe Muslim Brotherhood Facebook page includes news about freedoms in Libya, as well as discussions with their leaders on the reform initiative launched by Saif al-Islam al-Kadhafi.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has been active on Facebook since at least July 2008 and a recent post has discussed the Egyptian Brotherhood’s launch of its alternative social networking site known as IkhwanBook.